Hi everyone. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to wines. All I really drink is Zins because they are light and sweet. I have a question. I know of an elderly person who was recommended by her physian to drink wine for digestive system. I gave her a bottle of Zin and she didn't like it, too strong. I thought maybe a Riesling or Muscat. Now, like I said I don't know much about wine sooo am I going in the wrong direction.
thanks

Hi Zinful, and welcome to the Wine Board. You seem to be pointed in the right direction. There are two kinds of sweet, real sweet and perceived sweet. To keep things simple, let's just talk about real sweet, which your zin is not. Also, lets say sweet table wine is a little sweet, and dessert wine is very sweet. The best source in your neck of the woods for sweet table wine is riesling. So long as it doesn't say "dry" on the label, it will have some degree of sweetness. Buy two or three and see if she likes any of them, and then stick with that one. Most responsible riesling winemakers will print on the label how much residual sugar (RS) has been left in the wine, so you can pick them with different levels of sweetness.

Muscat is a little tougher. Most American muscat is dessert wine. The folks in Alsace make one that is nearly dry, and there is a slightly sweeter one from the Southern Rhone. There are a small handful of winemakers in California that try to make muscat in these styles. One is Easton in the Sierra Foothills.

You and Innkeeper are going in the right direction, I second the riesling suggestion. I tout Hogue Late Harvest White Riesling ($8), or any other Late Harvest Riesling like Kiona or Terra Blanca when I know someone wants 'sweet' wine. I drink 'em for dessert on a regular basis.

You might also try Quady 'Elektra' Muskat, priced right ~ $8, a dessert wine, it's nicely sweet and very low in alcohol at only 4%, compared to some fortified sweet wines like Port,which run up to ~20% alcohol. But if you want to try some 'ports', I recommend trying some of the Aussie 'stickies' like Hardy's, or Benjamins, Penfolds Reserve, Clocktower. All are economical and delicious.

Got the impression from the poster that we were talking about table wine here, not dessert wine. IMHO sweet red table wine is hard to come by on the Left Coast. East of the Rockies it is a piece of cake, as most small regional wineries produce wines of many stripes. One, for example, that is not bashful about shipping, is: http://www.mountpleasant.com/

Sweet Red table wine can be as easy to find as a lambrusco - most popular of the italian imports - I dont know much about how it is made other than it is red and sweet - fulfilling both the health issues (being red) and the taste issues (being sweet) - if the wine is watered or that particular grape varietal has little dietary benefits (some red wines contain more of the chemical thats good for us than others) than that would negate it as a prospect. Not sure on either of those issues - anyone know?

Sweet red table wines are not as easy to find on the Left Coast as they are on the East Coast. Good Lambrusco is even harder to find anywhere. Poor Lambrusco, AKA Reunite is nothing to sick on somebody getting serious about wine. For good Lambrusco contact Roberto at: WineExpo@earthlink.net. There are very few places in the USA that have it.